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Security clearance process remains ‘cumbersome’
Posted By Tim McDowell On December 2, 2008 @ 10:07 am In CIP, State & Local, HLD | No Comments
(Secrecy News, 12/1/08)
Despite compulsory legislative reforms and multiple executive orders intended to streamline the granting of security clearances for access to classified information, the process remains “cumbersome,” according to a new House Intelligence Committee report. While backlogs and processing time have been reduced since enactment of the 2004 Intelligence Reform Act, overall “progress over the past five years has been disappointing,” the report said.
Among other things, the executive branch has failed to establish an integrated database of all security clearance authorizations. As a consequence, “no one knows how many people in the U.S. Government hold security clearances.” (It is more than 2.5 million and probably around 3 million people in government, military and industry.) Government agencies have also failed to fulfill a requirement for security clearance “reciprocity,” referring to the acceptance by one agency of a security clearance granted by another agency. This is in spite of an explicit statutory requirement that “all security clearance background investigations and determinations… shall be accepted by all agencies.” [1] http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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URL to article: http://ismcolorado.com/2008/12/02/security-clearance-process-remains-%e2%80%98cumbersome%e2%80%99/
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[1] http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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